When truth is no defense

The Department of Justice for the Canadian conservative government has released its defense of the hate speech provisions of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

(Under the authority of this provision of law, Mark Steyn and MacLeans magazine have been brought up on charges of hate speech before three human rights commissions in Canada.  See Whither Canada?.  Five Canadian bloggers have also been sued by one Richard Warman, a former employee of the Canadian human rights commission.  See The Chilling Effect of Richard Warman)

37.  The defences of truth and fair comment remain available to torts such as defamation and seditious libel, regardless of the medium in which they occur. However, none of the traditional media can avail themselves of these defences in cases of alleged hate propaganda, whether the communication appears in print, on television or on a website.

38. As the Federal Court has explained, defences that may be available in tort actions are not available in cases of hate propaganda because the prohibition is concerned with adverse effects, not with intent.

Blogger Deborah Gyapong writes

I feel like a coup d'etat has taken place and I have awakened to the aftermath.
And this egregious affront to civil rights and to the freedom to speak the truth in Canada is being perpetuated now by the Conservative government.

Woe is us. I have this awful, awful feeling that we're too late. The war has been won by the other side and there are just mopping up operations left, and those that will be mopped up will be those who try to speak the truth in ways that the elite power structure does not like.